Father of the Bride Read online

  Carefully he filled the two glasses and handed one to Mrs. Banks. Behind the floral background the clock on the mantle struck twelve. The whistle of a train from the city hooted in the distance as it rounded the curve into the Fairview Manor station. A dog was barking somewhere.

  “How,” said Mr. Banks raising his glass.

  “How,” said Mrs. Banks.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Edward Streeter

  (1891-1976)

  From an early age, Edward Streeter had an affinity for writing. He edited the school paper and the class book at the Pomfret School, and he was editorin-chief of the Harvard Lampoon until he graduated in 1914.

  From Harvard he went to work for a building-supply business in Buffalo, but he soon began to write for the Buffalo Express. He continued to contribute articles to the Express while he was stationed on the Mexican border with the New York National Guard. It was there in his division’s newspaper that the first of his famous “Dere Mable” columns appeared. In 1918 Streeter published a collection of these columns, Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie, which became a bestseller while he was away fighting in France. He wrote three sequels: That’s Me All Over, Mable (1919), Same Old Bill, Eh, Mable (1919), and As You Were, Bill (1920).

  Though he still published stories in magazines, Streeter gave up the literary life to become a successful banker. After eighteen years, Streeter published Daily Except Sundays and began his second career as a satirist, following in the footsteps of contemporaries like Robert Benchley and Ogden Nash.

  In 1949, Streeter published Father of the Bride. The book was a major success, selling more than seventy thousand copies and becoming one of the year’s top-ten bestsellers. In 1950, Father of the Bride enjoyed more celebrity when it was made into a film starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor.

  Streeter went on to write six more books: Skoal Scandinavia (1952), Mr. Hobbs’ Vacation (1954), Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter (1956), Chairman of the Bored (1961), Along the Ridge (1964), and Ham Martin, Class of 77 (1969).

  As a humorist, Edward Streeter enjoyed only modest celebrity, but his most famous work, Father of the Bride, has lasted the ages.

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  SimonandSchuster.com

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Edward-Streeter

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Gluyas-Williams

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  Gluyas Williams

  (1888–1982)

  Gluyas Williams trained as an artist in Paris at Colorossi’s Atelier and returned to be the leading graphic cartoonist in America. He became famous for cartoons and drawings in The New Yorker, Life, Cosmopolitan, and various newspapers. He illustrated Streeter’s Daily Except Sundays and Father of the Bride and other books by Robert Benchley, William Freeman, and Corey Ford.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 1948, 1949 by Edward Streeter and Gluyas Williams

  Copyright renewed © 1977 by Edward Streeter and Gluyas Williams

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Paperbacks Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition March 2015

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  Interior design by Katy Riegel

  Cover design by Amy E. McHenry

  Cover illustrations by Gluyas Williams

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-1-4767-9929-2 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4767-9930-8 (ebook)